AshleyBCoombe

I recently went back to work. I’ve joined the ranks at MyWedding.com, as the Affiliate Relations Manager. I’m able to work from home, and I have the privilege of setting my own hours for the most part. If I need to work at night, or at four in the morning, I can. I’m also incredibly blessed to have a huge network of support, from my parents living here to the amazing teenager next door who is my mother’s helper this summer. I have a sweet home office set up, two huge monitors that mywedding.com provided.

I can’t emphazsize enough how much I love my new job. I heard my daughter describe it the other day and she said “My mom gets paid for looking at shoes and diamonds online.” The job is not quite that amazing, but it’s close. I am seeking out companies to join us in an affiliate relationship, then I determine (with my team) the best place on the site for the merchants who join us. We sometimes add their ad to the site, we sometimes add their products to a gallery (see Dessy Dresses). While I’m adding those, I do get to look at shoes and dresses and diamonds while working

I’ve already said it once, but it’s incredible to work at a place that turns good ideas into reality. I’ve been doing affiliate marketing and ecommerce so long on my own, it’s a very different process to have a team behind me to accomplish tasks quickly. I’ve never had graphic designers or writers or a dev team all working towards a goal that they all believe in. No more countless hours spent on odesk or elance or freelancer posting jobs, interviewing outsourcers and trying to manage! I’m trying to get used to accurately explaining my ideas to others as opposed to just getting things done on my own. What a difference though! Things happen so quickly, and actually get completed, instead of sitting at a half finished phase for months!

My next goal is to make it to Affiliate Summit East to meet some of the industry leaders. I’m trying! I’m dying to meet Shawn Collins, Jeremy Schoemaker, Brian Clark, Tricia Meyer, Eric Nagel, Todd Farmer, and so many other affiliate marketers who have made this their life. I would love to meet the people who head up Share-A-Sale and Google Affiliate Networks. I feel like I’d be among celebrities, but I think that makes me a nerd.

Maybe someday, as I develop my craft, my blog will be up on the list of blogs that people check for advice on affiliate marketing strategies. In the mean time, I’m going to go look at diamonds and shoes and get paid for it.